My family and I are nearing vacation time which will be followed by back to school time. My teenagers are in deep denial, my youngest is looking forward to seeing her friends. But first...vacation.Now comes the tough stuff. How much writing should I expect of myself? I am on vacation after all! The idea of doing nothing is incomprehensible and unrealistic. However, I don't want to feel guilty for spending time away from the computer or my notebook. Is this possible? Is time spent doing nothing (and I mean really nothing) well spent? Some of this guilt may come from the fact that as a writer you don't go to an office everyday and therefore vacation means a huge change in routine. My routine doesn't change - just the location. The sense of responsibility travels.
How good are you at really taking time off? Do you carry a notebook on vacation and make surreptitious notes on your WIP? Is it possible for writers to take a vacation?
I'm not good at it. I take my laptop with me everywhere. I always have either writing to do or clients to edit for. Plus, there's the blog to do. But I think you will be successful and will tell the rest of us how to shut down and take a vacation. Right?
ReplyDeleteHelen
Straight From Hel
I'm on vacation now, actually. More of a stay-cation, really. I've set aside my WIP in favor of merely relaxing. I've kept up my blog, but that's about it. So I guess I compromised.
ReplyDeleteI'll bet you won't stop "writing," even while you read a book or hike a trail or wait in a line for a ride at Epcot Center. Your brain will still be chugging away on your current project, planning scenes, maybe a little dialogue. I think the secret is to relax and let it happen. If you know that's also part of writing, then you realize there's nothing to feel guilty about. Keeping a scrap of paper and a ballpoint pen in your pocket, just in case, is not a bad thing either.
ReplyDeleteI agree that a compromise is best, and maybe impossible to avoid--at best. But, if there were some really important vacation event you HAD to do, you'd shut down the computer and go do, I'd bet. Then, in vacation "downtime," you could putter with the 'puter. Would work for me.
ReplyDeleteBest Regards, Galen
Imagineering Fiction Blog
Thanks, everyone for your fine words of wisdom. I shall try a happy medium. And welcome Jack!
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